


Extremity

by Felle_DesignWorks (Felle)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Strap-Ons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-01-31 19:52:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felle/pseuds/Felle_DesignWorks
Summary: Siphoning the Black Garnet's power into the Horde's new second-in-command has some unintended side effects.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moonwatcher13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonwatcher13/gifts), [Loriela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loriela/gifts).



> Adora has they/them/their pronouns here b/c that's what the requester asked for.

Catra growled for the third time in as many minutes as the warm water pattered over her back and down her legs. Her claws dug into the tile wall in front of her, and it took her a moment to realize that the material was fracturing beneath her fingers. She pulled back and looked down at her hands. They didn’t _look_ any different, unlike the new bulk in her arms and legs, but the _feeling_ …it was heady, really.

In retrospect, she knew letting Entrapta use her as a test subject for whatever it was that she did with the Black Garnet wasn’t wise. She was second-in-command for the entire Horde now, after all, and putting her out of action had been a very real risk. Just imagining Scorpia taking her place, or Hordak forbid, _Entrapta_ , was enough to make her worry. And something going wrong had been an oh so present possibility.

But nothing had gone wrong. The princess’s fiddling with the stone had channeled its power somewhere useful, through her body, until she felt _full_ , full to bursting with strength and energy and the ability to tear through all of their training courses so fast that they couldn’t be reset quickly enough for her.

And with all of her new strength, unfortunately, came an overwelling of emotion as well. Gone was the calm, composed, smirking Catra, and in her place was someone swinging back and forth like a pendulum. It was as if her body had left behind everything but the most extreme feelings, jubilation and rage and misery. In her mind, the impropriety of her responses was obvious, but there seemed to be nothing she could do to temper them. It made her so _mad_ to think about—

Her fist swung out sideways into the shower wall, with cracks webbing out and through the tile from her point of impact. Catra growled again, from deep in her chest. She had to get a handle on this strength before she completely demolished her new quarters. Her mood, too, needed to normalize. There were too many ways that could get the better of her at an inopportune moment.

Well. She’d only had the Black Garnet’s energy channeled into her a few hours prior, maybe it would all level out in a day or two. She could hope, anyway. Catra cut the water and dried herself off. Out in her bedroom, for a moment she expected to see…someone. Anyone. Sleeping in a barracks with three squads for as long as she could remember hadn’t prepared her for privacy. It was a bit unsettling, how silent it was but for the occasional drip of water from the showerhead behind her. There had always been someone holding a quiet conversation, or snoring, or tossing and turning to try and find a comfortable position that wouldn’t aggravate some new bruise or cut. This was almost too still, too disconnected from the energy she had become accustomed to, and pacing from one end to the other only did so much to imitate it.

Eventually, when she did crawl into her bed, Catra found that she wasn’t tired. That was more perturbing than anything. Usually she took whatever chance she could find to sneak in a nap, and nothing short of a bomb would wake her up when she was in a properly deep sleep. No matter how she moved around to try and bootstrap her body for bed by going through the motions, though, her boundless energy remained, coiled tight in her like a spring held down and ready to burst out. She could barely lie still, and then only for a few seconds before a twitch in her muscles forced some motion out of her. Maybe Entrapta’s experiment hadn’t gone as well as they’d first thought…

She couldn’t go and burn off the excess energy in the training wing, she knew. It hadn’t worked the first time, and they were probably still repairing the mess she had already made in there. But neither could she just _lay_ there all night, staring at the ceiling with only silence to accompany her. Catra punched up into the empty air for fear of breaking her bed if she punched down and let her hands fall back onto her body, with one landing at the top of her thighs and making her toes curl from the vibration.

Well, there was always another way to try and settle herself, wasn’t there…perhaps the privacy would be a boon now, rather than an imposition. Everyone in the barracks did it once they were old enough, with the understanding that everyone else would ignore them as long as no one got too conspicuous about it. Her fingers worked at the drawstring of her trousers, willed to be slow lest she lose her patience and claw through the fabric. The tunic was an easier matter, riding up to her collarbone and then going over her head while she kicked her trousers away. Catra felt what should have been a pleasant tingle, but with her body swinging back and forth as it was, it became a deep, tight ache lancing up through her chest that forced a moan through her. She chuckled. If _everything_ in her body had been amplified, then she was in for quite the time.

It was a slow start. Her fingers were too fast, too strained at the seams, for such fine motion at first. Catra could feel herself getting frustrated when she missed the mark, and each spate of frustration threatened to flare into another destructive spike of anger, until she found something that worked for her. She arched her back, pushing up from the sheets in an effort to change the angle, and one finger swirled around her sex with the lightest press she could muster. When it slipped inside, her breath escaped in a long hiss. It had been a long time since she’d been able to vent her stress in such a way, not since Adora—

Her thoughts hit a foul note at that, souring the pleasant haze she had worked herself into and pulling her back into reality. For a fleeting moment, her overactive emotions weren’t sure which way to swing at the thought of Adora. Fury at their betrayal had a good case, of course. But so too did despondency over their absence, and, and…the pressure in her coiled tighter. Desire? Lust? Catra groaned and twisted on her bed.  Of course there was something like that, turned up to an extreme along with everything else, when Adora had so gladly taken care of this for her in the past.

Slowly, carefully, Catra guided her hand back into place. If she was going to be swimming in this emotion as well, there was no reason why she shouldn’t use it. At least it might distract from the rage and dejection for a little while. Her fingers swirled in a deliberately slow circuit around her clit, exploring and experimenting with different levels of pressure, until they were so slicked that she could slip one, then a second, into herself and hook them upward.

Thankfully her stamina hadn’t been pushed to ridiculous levels as well, or at least not this kind of stamina. Catra closed her eyes and tried to pick out something that would help her along, anything, but her thoughts circled back, inevitably, to Adora. Stupid, self-righteous, soft-hearted Adora, leaving her alone to go on their little crusade…the fabric of the bedsheets began to fray under her hand. They ran off, there was no reason to think of them now. But still—it used to be _their_ fingers doing this for her. Their mouth, when they were feeling generous. Lust began to push out the anger, which at least made for a useful feeling. Catra’s breaths grew quick and labored as she wound tighter, hitting on a delightfully sensitive spot inside of her, until there wasn’t much of anything beyond herself. “Adora,” she said breathlessly, picturing the last time they had comforted her, perfectly sussing out all of her favorite spots. “Adora, Adora, Adora…”

The sound of the window opening and something falling into her quarters made her snap her eyes open. Catra looked around, grimacing from cutting herself off when she had been so agonizingly close, and what should her gaze settle on but Adora themselves, trying to get up off the floor after gracelessly rolling in. They seemed confused at the room’s new purpose before they turned around and saw Catra on the bed, absent her clothes, staring right back at them. “What—”

Catra was out of her bed and on top of Adora in the blink of an eye, pouncing with her newfound strength and reflexes. That irksome sword came off of their back and clattered to the floor, kicked under the bed before Adora could do anything. They lost their breath as Catra planted an arm across their shoulders and rammed them back into the wall, landing with such force that the metal began to deform behind them. Adora’s head bounced back slightly from the impact, and the wind had been thoroughly knocked out of them if the wheezing was any indication. Catra leaned in and growled against their ear: “Hey, Adora.”

They struggled, but between the shock, being disoriented, and the new strength from the Black Garnet, Catra had no trouble keeping them pinned to the wall with only one arm pressed over their collarbone. Adora blinked the stars from their eyes, and their cheeks began to color. “Catra, what…why are you naked?”

“You think you’re gonna show up here and start asking questions? Wrong. Why are _you_ sneaking into my room in the dead of night?”

Catra extended her claws and put one to Adora’s throat. A bit too late, she realized it was still wet from arousal, but the anger was still too overpowering for any mortification to crop up. Instead she worked the length of her claw against the soft skin, delighting in the way Adora squirmed and tried vainly to move away from it. “I’m waiting,” Catra said.

“I felt something with—with the Black Garnet.” Adora craned their neck upward to soften the press of the claw’s point. “This was always a storage room, you weren’t supposed to be in here!”

“Oh, cry me a river.”

The spike of arousal that had been so swiftly suppressed by Adora’s interruption flared back to life, and whatever else Catra planned to say melted in her mind, as if a fuzz had descended over everything and left only the merest sort of outline of her emotions: Anger. Sadness. Lust. She tried to shake her head clear, to no avail. Adora used the moment of lost focus to bring one hand up and push the claw from their throat, brow furrowing at the slick texture there. “Catra, what happened to you? Why are you all…strong?”

She growled and put her claw back in place against Adora’s neck. “No, I’m done talking. I’m not in the mood. Or I was, before you barged in. All this energy is going _somewhere_ , so we’re either going to fight,” Catra said, leaning in and planting one knee between Adora’s legs, “or we’re going to fuck. At this point we’re tearing the building apart or I’m ramming you against this wall until you can’t stand. Your choice.”

Their eyes widened, and it seemed to click for them what the odd texture on their neck was. Catra tried to puzzle out what was going on in their head, but the haze of emotion was making cogent thought difficult. They were going to fight, anyway. That was how it always was. And as long as she could keep Adora away from that sword, she would be more than a match for them. It seemed a shame to wreck her new quarters so soon, but if there was no helping it, then that was the way it had to be. She pressed her claw in a little more. “Well?”

“I didn’t come here to fight.”

Catra blinked, momentarily blanking, before she pressed her arm harder across Adora’s shoulders. “I’m not—that’s not going to trick me,” she said. When were they _not_ fighting these days?

Adora put a hand on Catra’s arm, making her start. It was too soft, too gentle, not the hard grip to wrench her away that she expected. “Catra, I want it.”

The anger was still very much there, but seemed to recede for a moment, overpowered by one of her other extreme emotions. She glowered at Adora, trying to pick out any signs of deception, but the sight of their flushed cheeks and heavy breathing proved more compelling than any notions of good judgment. Catra took her arm away and turned Adora in place to push them face-first into the wall. She leaned forward, lips brushing on Adora’s ear, clawed hands settling on their hips. “Say it, then.”

“Ah?”

“I want to hear you _say it_ , Adora. Tell me exactly what you want me to do to you.”

They trembled and wriggled against Catra’s hands, but there wasn’t any breaking out of her grip. Adora’s breaths grew longer, calmer, and their body seemed to relax after a moment. They turned their head enough that they could make some fleeting, sidelong eye contact. “Please fuck me, Catra,” Adora said, and Catra’s claws dug in through their shirt.

“Good girl. Don’t move.”

She pulled Adora’s jacket from their shoulders and ran her claws ever so lightly over the firm planes of Adora’s back. Not with enough force to draw blood, but enough to leave Adora shivering and squirming against the wall. Their arousal was obvious enough, an intoxicating sort of smell that was too quintessentially…them. Catra forced herself to take a step back so she could find her box of toys before the force of her own arousal proved to be too much. Still, she kept an eye on Adora, obediently pressed to the wall, as she moved away to reach up on a shelf.

“What else did that egghead do…”

Entrapta had a bad habit of ‘upgrading’ her belongings and then neglecting to mention what she did. Not that Catra had a mind to complain most of the time—the upgrades to the toys she’d used so far were more than welcome—but the strap-on was still a mystery. It looked similar to how it had been before, other than the straps being neatly tucked into pockets on the sides. Well. No time like the present to try it out. Catra put it in place to get everything fastened, only for the straps to shoot out around her hips and legs and lock in without any fuss before a small section near the base of the cock lit up with symbols she didn’t recognize. A quick touch to one made the shaft vibrate, twisting the illuminated section made the surface warm to the touch, and tugging it forward extended the shaft slightly. She grinned through another spike of lust. “Oh, thank you, egghead.”

Catra prowled back to Adora, taking hold of their wrists and putting them over their head on the wall. With those out of the way, she could take hold of Adora’s pants and yank them down far enough that Adora could step out of them. Before she could stop herself, Catra took a light nibble from the back of one thigh. “Princesses don’t wear panties, huh?” she asked, running her hands up Adora’s legs.

“Y-you pulled them down with everything else…”

“Just be glad I didn’t rip it all in two. Can you imagine?” Catra stood and bunched all of Adora’s hair in her fist to tug her head back and whisper directly into her ear. “The great She-Ra slinking back to Brightmoon without pants because you were so desperate to get _fucked_ by your worst enemy. By me. Because you asked so nicely, Adora.”

The shaft of the cock slid between Adora’s thighs without resistance, gliding over the soft, slick skin there. Even so addled by lust, Catra knew they would need a little more preparation before pressing on, even if she might have gotten away with it now. No, she…she needed to do this properly. To completely and utterly _ruin_ Adora. To let them know exactly what they gave up by throwing in with the wrong side. Catra rolled her hips back and forth to grind the shaft along Adora’s sex, drawing out gasping shudders while she kissed and licked at their throat. “Oh, you’re sweating,” Catra said, and dipped her tongue into the crook of their neck. Adora shook against her, and Catra pressed the base of the shaft forward more insistently. “Why so nervous? Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you…much.”

It didn’t take long to get them ready. Adora was whimpering after only a few minutes, pushing their hips back in counter to Catra’s movements. “Do you feel how wet you are?” Catra asked, wrapping one hand around Adora’s throat while the other reached down to rub at their clit. They bucked against Catra’s fingers, thighs pressing on the shaft from either side. A deep, primal part of her wanted to thrust into them and be done with it, but there were knives to twist. “I feel it. How needy and desperate you are. How you came all this way only to throw your job aside because you want me to fuck you this badly.”

“Catra, please…” Their voice was high and tight, full to brimming with desire. Catra nipped at their shoulder.

“Part of me wishes the other princesses could see you like this. Splayed out. Begging. Etheria’s destined hero, champion of the rebellion, with your legs spread so nicely for me.” Catra took her hand from Adora’s throat and grabbed the shaft of the cock, pushing it up slightly and sinking the head into Adora, earning a breathy whine. She licked her lips and held Adora there for a moment, balancing them on a razor’s edge. “But another part of me wants you all for myself.”

She slid in with ease, sinking further and further until her hips bumped Adora’s and she was buried up to the hilt. Catra growled softly and lingered there, letting Adora adjust, before rocking her hips back and pushing in again, earning her a gasp. For at least a few short minutes, she managed to keep her pace under control, falling into a comfortable rhythm with Adora offering up their neck and shoulders to her wandering mouth, but that didn’t last. Her emotions began to swing out of control again before long, no matter how much she wanted to draw it out, and Catra’s steady roll descended into little more than a rut, madly thrusting in and out of Adora with abandon.

The added roughness hardly seemed a problem for them, though. Adora bumped their hips back to meet Catra’s each time, sweat rolling down their neck, their voice breaking and wavering more and more with each thrust. When their whole body was a quivering wreck, Catra bit into the crook of their shoulder, and her reward was the fleeting, coppery taste of blood mixed with Adora’s exultant cry as the pleasure pulled them apart. Their countermovement stopped, overwhelmed as they were, but Catra wasn’t done. Adora started when she pulled out of them and flipped them around so they could face one another. “Be quiet,” she said, and crushed Adora’s lips under hers as she pushed into them again.

Catra couldn’t imagine how they could get any slicker, and the only resistance was Adora’s muscles, greedily clamping down on her to try and keep her from leaving. The irony almost made her laugh. Instead she parted her lips and swiped her tongue forward, prompting Adora to do the same and let her in. A lance of pleasure cut up through Catra, entirely removed from the rub of the cock’s base against her clit. Their submission was a reward in itself, obedience she could drink herself sick on. One hand tightened on Adora’s thigh, nearly drawing blood, while her lips pressed harder against theirs.

Even sooner than before, Adora was winding up again, gripping hard at Catra’s shoulders as their body shook and shuddered. Catra broke her lips away, putting her free hand over Adora’s mouth, and smirked. “Go on, come,” she said, thrusting faster. “I want to see your face when you give in. Come for me.”

They did. The hum of their cry against Catra’s palm reverberated through her whole body, making her jolt and throwing off the rhythm of her hips. Adora fell against her, legs shaking, overwhelmed by the rip of two orgasms through her in such quick succession. So warm…Catra planted her hands on Adora’s thighs and lifted them free, turned around, and tossed them onto the bed. Adora landed with a soft _whump_ and curled in on themselves, rubbing at their clit to make up for the loss of stimulation.

“Ah, ah,” Catra said, prowling up to them. She reached down and fiddled with the buttons on the shaft, making the length of it grow warm under her hand and vibrate insistently. Adora watched, glassy-eyed, as Catra climbed atop them and moved their hands away. Their back arched when the head of the cock bumped against them and pushed inside. “The only pleasure you’re going to have is from _me_.”

And she was going to give it, one way or another, whether or not the bed would still be intact by the end. Catra shoved Adora’s legs apart and thrusted furiously into her again, letting gravity aid her as she hiked Adora’s shirt up and cupped the swells of their breasts. They moaned without a care for how they sounded, so wonderfully desperate, squirming from all the new sensations working through them. Catra, too, was finding it hard to hold out against the new warmth and vibration running into her body. Still, she clamped down and forced herself to continue, no matter how tempting it was to lose herself in the pleasure. Adora needed to know what they were missing. Catra swept down on their lips again in another bruising, claiming kiss, rocking faster and faster to bring them over the edge again.

But self-control wasn’t something the Black Garnet had amplified, and the feeling of Adora’s hands on her back combined with the sounds of their moans, on top of everything the cock was doing for her, proved too much to resist. Catra slammed into Adora in another furious rut, tongue shoved halfway down their throat as she came and made all of her muscles go haywire with an overpowering surge of pleasure. It seemed to have the desired effect, at least, and Adora was crying out into her mouth not long after, trembling so violently that the mattress shifted under them.

Finally, _finally_ , her energy seemed spent, and Catra slumped on top of Adora, still claiming their mouth, still keeping their legs apart for easier access. She let go of one to turn off the extra functions before the stimulation became painful, and they were both panting heavily when they broke for air, still holding each other tight. Catra rested her forehead on Adora’s for a fleeting moment before falling to one side and pulling them against her, arms locked over their shoulders and waist. They were breathing hard, one hand resting on Catra’s forearm, and pushed back lightly on her.

“You can’t stay here.”

Catra wasn’t sure if she meant it as a simple statement of fact, or perhaps a question, an invitation. The fog in her head had lifted slightly, but now she had the exhaustion of burning away all of her energy to contend with. Adora was silent at first, still holding Catra’s arm, and sighed when Catra nudged at their shoulder for an answer.

“No,” they said.

A flicker of one emotion or other lit in her mind, but what had she expected, really? Adora had made their choice, and she had made hers. That was all there was to it. “No,” Catra repeated, and held her tighter.


	2. Chapter 2

When Adora drifted out of sleep and back into the waking world, they had no idea when the last time was that they had felt so relaxed. Certainly such moments had been rare, vanishingly rare, and the feeling was as unfamiliar as it was pleasant, so much so that they almost fell asleep once more. But the view through the window, so unlike what she saw from her quarters in Brightmoon, roused her the rest of the way.

The Fright Zone. The plumes of smoke rising through the air. The faint grind of machines and the sound of soldiers marching in lockstep in one of the courtyards below. Now they remembered. Looking into what had become of the Black Garnet, inadvertently ambushing Catra, getting…sidetracked…it came rushing back all at once and hit them like a punch in the face.

Adora tried to sit up, only to realize that Catra’s arm across their waist was holding them quite firmly in place, and that their clothes were nowhere near their body. They frowned, even as a pleasant soreness ached out from their core and went radiating through their body. Going to the Fright Zone by themselves wasn’t a wise idea in the first place, much less staying all night as if it were nothing more than another place to sleep. Catra shifted against them, and even that small movement was enough to jostle Adora and make the bed frame creak. It seemed as if the effects of the Black Garnet weren’t going to wear off any time soon. Catra’s body was still ready to burst at the seams to support her new musculature, arms rippling around Adora with each random twitch.

It seemed to make her a heavier sleeper, too. Not that she wasn’t already, but Catra had always at least been awake to watch all the other recruits hurry out to the morning muster. Now, if it wasn’t for the shallow rhythm of her breath or the occasional shiver from her body, Adora could have mistaken her for dead. Well. Whatever the process was for siphoning off so much power must have exhausted her above and beyond any usual exertion. It was almost nice, not seeing her on edge like she usually was, peaceful and sedate.

Her torpor also allowed Adora to get a closer look at her, though they weren’t all that enthralled with what they saw. Under the new bulk of her muscles, her frame seemed to have shrunk, leaving her thin around the waist and neck. Even with a full night of uninterrupted sleep, there were dark circles under her eyes, deep and lined. Her claws alternated between broken and overgrown, curling so much that they were liable to poke at her, while her fur was full of knots and matted sections with dirt and dried blood caked in. It almost hurt to see her like this, so diminished, so unlike the Catra they knew.

Carefully, so as not to wake her, Adora shimmied their way down the bed and out of Catra’s grasp. As soon as they were free, Catra rolled forward and onto her stomach in Adora’s absence, still fast asleep. Adora dressed as quietly as they could and retrieved their sword from under the bed, always watching to make sure Catra was still asleep. She didn’t stir again after falling into the empty space left by Adora. They crept up to the bedside and put their hand out, ready to stroke Catra’s hair, but found that it was in as poor a condition as her fur. Adora sighed.

The thought occurred to them to write a note in case Catra woke up before they returned from the storeroom nearby, but the quarters were still bare, devoid of anything to write with or on. Adora settled for tiptoeing to the door and opening it a crack to make sure there was no one outside.

Even when they returned from pilfering the storeroom for some acutely nostalgic nutrition paste, Catra was still asleep, though now at least the end of her tail was swishing idly. Adora set one meal sleeve aside and opened the other, taking off bites of the semisolid paste as they sat at the foot of the bed. They put their free hand on Catra’s calf to run their thumb through a clean section of fur. There were so many times like this in the barracks, waking up in the middle of the night to find Catra had crawled up from her spot at the bottom of the bed to cuddle, and now…now Adora didn’t know what they were. Enemies, rivals, something along those lines. It stung too much to think about for very long.

Catra finally made a sound to indicate that she was still alive and grasped at empty air with one hand before returning to rub at her temple. Her legs drew in and her tail curled up between them as she stretched everything in one smooth motion. Adora worried their lower lip between their teeth. “Ugh, feels like I got worked over with a mallet…”

She was still rubbing her head when she sat up, but her tired expression turned immediately to scorn when she saw Adora sitting at the other end of the bed, wiping some nutrition paste from their mouth. Catra tensed and tried to draw herself in again to pounce, but she seemed to have no energy left for all those muscles. Adora picked up the other meal sleeve and held it out. “You should eat.”

Catra’s best attempt at swatting their hand away only managed to generate enough force to knock the unopened packet onto the bedsheets. In the absence of enough strength to put up a fight, she had to settle for a dirty look. “What do you care whether I eat or not? I don’t even know why you’re still here. You already got what you wanted last night, and I’m not doing that again anytime soon. So just…leave before I decide to put the whole Fright Zone on alert.”

It was a good idea, all in all. Even as She-Ra, they didn’t have much hope of taking on the entire Horde with no backup and no escape plan. Adora was looking at the window they had come through the night before, wondering how they might retrace the same route now that they didn’t have the cover of night to help them, but shook their head. Catra could spurn them all she wanted, but the frailty under all her new muscles, the sense of smallness coming off of her despite the bulk, tugged badly at Adora’s heartstrings. “No, not yet.”

They stood up and went into the attached bathroom, looking through the cabinets for everything they needed. “I’m serious, that stupid sword won’t save you against everything I can throw at you now,” Catra said, but a quick glance into the main space revealed that she wasn’t reaching for any intercom or communicator. All she could do was sit there on her bed and bite at what claws weren’t already too short for her fangs to get at. “Will you just go already?”

Adora piled up a few files, a soft brush, and a first aid kit in their arms and brought everything back to the bed. They took Catra’s leg and laid it over their lap despite her resistance, which ended quickly after a few ineffectual tugs. “Put out your claws, please,” Adora said.

“Cut it out already, quit pretending that you care how I look…”

Nonetheless, Catra slowly extended the claws on her foot. They were all overgrown rather than bitten down to nubs, making it easy for Adora to start filing them to a workable length. “It used to be that you wouldn’t even show up to muster unless everything about you was immaculate,” Adora said as they shaped her claws so they wouldn’t hurt when they went in or out. “Not that you were ever very concerned with showing up in the first place…”

Catra grumbled, but it descended into a purr that she would never admit to, not if her life depended on it. “It’s not like you have any room to talk about not showing up. Some of us are still here, and you’re not. You ran away. You abandoned us. You abandoned _me_. For your precious princesses.”

Adora pressed their tongue between their teeth. They could lose the whole morning arguing back and forth like this and accomplish nothing. The file rolled against the last of Catra’s claws. “I’m sorry that I abandoned you,” Adora said, circling Catra’s ankle with their thumb. It was a trite apology, and they couldn’t imagine that it began to salve any of the hurt that must have been running through to her core, but it was all they could offer. They certainly couldn’t come back to the Horde. The next few moments were all they could offer. “Other foot, please.”

She didn’t even put up a token resistance before surrendering her entire leg to Adora’s attentions. When Catra’s claws were at a comfortable length—and had their sharpest points filed down to something that wouldn’t draw blood in a pitched fight—Adora took the brush and began working out the mats in the fur on Catra’s legs. They weren’t so self-centered to believe that their leaving the Horde had sent Catra into a spiral of not caring about herself, though they did have to wonder if it was a contributing factor. Catra winced when Adora worked out a knot on the side of one calf. “How come you got dressed?” she asked.

“It’s not easy to carry a sword on my back without clothes. Here, you really look like you need to eat something.”

“I don’t know what you think this little pampering session is going to accomplish. What, do you think I’ll just go skipping back to Brightmoon with you to join the rebellion? I’ve seen the people you hang out with over there. Not my crowd.” Despite her snipes, Catra took the meal sleeve and bit it open with her fangs.

“What about Entrapta?”

“She hardly counts, she doesn’t care where she is or who she’s working for as long as she can do her tinkering.”

They both snickered at that, but stopped as soon as they made eye contact. “I don’t expect you to do anything because of this. I’m just…doing it because we used to be friends. Maybe we still could be, if we can stop fighting.” Adora shifted up on the bed and took Catra’s hand to work on her foreclaws. “But I know you’re not going to leave right after your new promotion, and I’m not staying here. So this is all I can do.”

It was more complicated to work on the claws Catra had bitten or broken, but Adora managed to fix them up so they would at least grow properly again. When her fur was mostly free of mats, Adora focused on her hair, working from the bottom of the strands to try and unknot the mess it had become. “I don’t think anyone’s going to respect me if I’m looking all prim and proper like this. It’s not really the aesthetic around here,” Catra said.

“Well, I’m sure you can find some way to dirty yourself up after I leave.”

“After you leave.”

They were facing Catra’s back to brush her hair, but they were certain she would have turned away in another position. Adora ran their fingers through her hair for a final sweep, and their work seemed satisfactory. Before they could think better of it, Adora parted Catra’s hair and leaned forward, pressing their nose and lips against the nape of Catra’s neck. Adora heard her suck in a sharp breath at the feeling, before she started to tremble.

“Catra,” Adora said, letting their voice hum through her throat and back.

“Yeah…?”

Adora gave her a pat on the shoulder and moved back. “Go get in the shower.”

She froze, then sighed and groaned. “Seriously? Wow, you really know how to make a girl feel special, don’t you? If you want an opportunity to slip out without some awkward goodbye, then just do it, you don’t have to make something up about how I smell—”

“I’m not going to leave while you’re in there.”

Catra looked over her shoulder at them, an unsure expression on her face. Adora smiled weakly. How pretty she could look when the two of them weren’t trying to tear each other’s throats out. They patted Catra’s shoulder. “But I won’t lie, you do smell a little. Go shower.”

The only real protest she made was a scoff as she shuffled off the bed and padded into the bathroom, tail swishing idly behind her. Catra stopped at the door, one hand resting on the frame, then went on alone and closed herself in. Adora chose to believe, in some egoistic part of their mind, that Catra had been contemplating inviting them to join her. Disappointment twinged in their gut as the water began flowing in the bathroom. They set their sword aside and flopped down on their stomach, gathering up Catra’s pillow and stuffing it under their nose to greedily take in her scent. Certainly there was no use lamenting the different courses their lives had taken, but Adora found it impossible to resist a moment of imagining.

It was several minutes before the water cut off, and Adora almost marveled at the fact that private showers in the Fright Zone weren’t on a brutally restrictive timer as those in the barracks were. They listened to Catra moving around the bathroom and turning on the dryer, drowning out every other sound. When that cut away as well, nervous energy shot through Adora. Catra hadn’t taken any clothes into the bathroom with her, which meant…

She slid the door away and stepped back into her quarters with nothing to wear, fur and hair slightly fluffed from the dryer’s hot air. Catra yawned, stretching her torso out to lean back as her muscles drew taut, and Adora wondered if they might melt then and there. The moment of softness and vulnerability seemed to paint her in a brilliant light, almost—perfect. A hot sear of desire roiled in Adora, and they wanted nothing more than to tell Catra so, to let everything spill out and make the poor decision to linger here a little longer.

But there was no use saying any of that to her. The gulf between them was too wide now, too deep to be bridged by something stirred up from such a base place. Catra blinked for a long moment, then furrowed her brow. “What’re you looking at me like that for?”

Words were useless, that much was clear. But actions…and Adora would be lying if they said they didn’t want this badly. Slowly, they sat up and shifted off the bed. Their mouth felt so terribly dry. “Would you, ah—sit on the edge of the bed there?”

Catra frowned, but did so without protest, leaning back on her hands to luxuriate a bit. Adora took tight, cautious steps closer until they were right in front of her, then sank to their knees between her legs. She arched an eyebrow as Adora looked up at her. “Not that I don’t like the sight of you beneath me, but what is this?”

“Can I touch you?”

She didn’t seem to know what to make of the request at first, but after a moment her cheeks colored slightly. Her tail, swishing back and forth, now coiled tight, and her hands dug deeper into the sheets. “What are you talking about?” she asked, her affected chuckle belying uncertainty. “You’ve been touching me all morning…”

“That’s not the way I want to touch you now.”

Her whole body froze, mismatched eyes raking over Adora and the hand edging closer and closer to her bare foot without actually connecting. Some of the fur on her stomach stood on end for a moment, making a path that led down to the darker stretch between her legs. She scoffed and stared up at the ceiling. “Do whatever you want.”

“Catra.”

“Fine!” She started to fold her arms, then stopped and pushed her chest out instead. “Touch me…and make it count. You’re not going to be doing this again.”

Adora privately doubted that, but they only nodded and climbed up on the bed while Catra shifted back to accommodate them. One hand reached tentatively out for Catra’s arm and wrapped around it, tugging firmly enough to bring it up where it could lay on their shoulder. “You look so much stronger now,” Adora said, running their thumbs over the line of her bicep, then quickly added, “not that you weren’t before, but…this is different.”

“Uh-huh,” Catra said, her voice shaky, as she watched Adora lean in and press a kiss to her arm. They moved along, trailing kisses into her elbow and forearm and wrist, resisting the urge to laugh when her fur tickled at their nose. When they came down to Catra’s hand, Adora focused on her palm, feeling the way her claws retracted on their cheek as they kept up their attentions. Catra squirmed in place. “W-what else do you like?”

“What’s not to like,” they murmured, setting Catra’s arm down and planting their hands on her hips to steady themselves before dipping to her throat. Catra pitched her head back while Adora kissed at the fur there, then bumped her chin to the crown of Adora’s head before they moved lower, to the hard ridge of her collarbone. Muscles twitched beneath her skin, and her already uneven breathing grew more ragged when they continued further down, to the swell of one breast, kissing through the finer, thinner fur until their lips brushed over the stiff peak of her nipple. They flicked lightly with their tongue, only for Catra to plant one hand on her back and dig in through their jacket. “There’s nothing I can point out without neglecting something else. So I guess I’ll just have to relish all of it.”

Adora drifted further down, gently pushing Catra back onto her elbows so they could get at the hard tone of her stomach, dotting kisses from the end of her ribs to the slight protrusions of her hipbones. “You could probably crush my head between your thighs right now, couldn’t you?” More kisses, trailing the inside of her thigh. Blue and yellow eyes, wide as they watched in barely-contained anticipation. Their kisses edged further up, until the scent of Catra’s arousal blotted out everything else. “I don’t think you will, though. You know there are better things you could be enjoying, hmm?”

They slid their tongue in a long, wide line before Catra could respond, forcing her down and onto her back as she trembled. Adora grinned. Now it was their turn.

Catra wasn’t hard to figure out, and they already knew what she liked from more than a few nights at this. Adora grabbed her thighs and held them out to the sides so Catra was properly splayed for them, letting them flick their tongue in a slow circuit around her clit without interruption. A hand worked into their hair, and Adora could feel the very tips of a few claws on their scalp as they worked.

“Don’t stop,” came Catra’s desperate refrain, growled out from deep within her chest. As if they would. Adora took one hand from her thigh and swirled their second finger around her sex, just enough to make her feel it without slipping inside. With her leg free, Catra draped it over Adora’s shoulder, still trying to exert some kind of dominance even as she was coming apart at the seams. Adora pressed more firmly and slipped inside, forcing Catra’s back into a tight arch. “Fuck!”

“Mmhmm,” Adora said, their mouth still too occupied for anything more eloquent. They changed the flick of their tongue from a slow lap to a quick swipe and back again, watching Catra gasp and quiver around them with each change in tempo. Finally Adora drew their tongue back and replaced it with their lips, forming a tight seal around her clit and suckling lightly until the violent shaking of Catra’s body made her orgasm obvious. They stayed there for a moment, tongue flitting idly to provoke an aftershock or two while the hand in their hair slowly disentangled and lifted away. “Maybe the shower should’ve come after…”

There were no quips or snipes left in Catra. Instead she reached down and pulled Adora on top of her, where the raggedness of her breathing was obvious. “Why did you have to leave,” Catra said, muttering in between labored breaths. Adora frowned.

“I couldn’t stay.”

Suddenly they were on their back, with Catra atop them and clambering to sit up on shaky legs. Now it was Adora’s turn to wriggle impatiently. Their whole idea had been doing this solely for Catra’s sake, but…seeing her now, lust-addled, still needy to judge by the slow rock of her hips, was enough to spark a little greed. Now Adora wanted to see her fall apart for their own sake. They put one hand on the small of Catra’s back and nudged her forward, making her shuffle on her knees over the bedsheets. “That wasn’t enough for you, was it? Come here. Let me take care of you.”

Catra didn’t need any more encouragement. Adora lashed their tongue upward when they were close enough, garnering a sudden moan from Catra, quickly suppressed. The hand wound into their hair again, and Catra’s tail wrapped weakly around one of Adora’s legs. They were bound in place, for all intents and purposes. That was fine. Adora had no mind for drawing this one out, they only wanted to see how quickly they could get Catra off. Maybe it was self-serving. They didn’t care all that much. All Adora cared about now was the feel of Catra’s fur under their hands and the heady taste of her arousal on their lower lip. She lost herself in the rhythm soon enough, rocking her hips over Adora’s face, falling into quick, jerky movements until she was biting back a gasp and trying to keep herself from tipping over.

Adora had only barely wiped their chin clean when Catra began clambering off of them, panting and glassy-eyed. They were both backwards on the bed, but that didn’t seem to matter as Catra laid down beside them and laid her cheek on their shoulder. Adora worked one arm under her head and kept her close as she came down, turning occasionally to press a kiss to Catra’s forehead.

It was easy to fall back into this. Too easy, dangerously easy, even when the battle lines were already drawn. Adora could write off whatever this was as a fluke, an uncontrolled outburst of emotion—they sighed. Even in their head, the excuse sounded flimsy. “This can’t keep happening,” Adora said, scratching idly at Catra’s back.

“Don’t tell me, you’re the one who started up this morning. I was ready to kick you out and pretend I never saw you.” Catra extended the claw on her first finger and pressed it to the soft skin beneath Adora’s mouth. “Don’t try and offload the blame because you’ve got it bad for me.”

Adora didn’t humor her with a response, instead focused entirely on the point digging into her skin. It was no longer sharp enough to draw blood without a concerted effort, a fact they had rather wished Catra wouldn’t discover until they were a good way back to Brightmoon, but that no longer seemed realistic. Catra frowned, then scoffed in understanding. “I can just file them sharp again, you know.”

“I know. And I know you will.” Over Catra’s hair, through the window, the sun was creeping higher and higher into the sky. Their fingers dug into Catra’s back. “I can’t stay here.”

“Nope.”

Before Catra could get any more defensive and pretend not to care about things she couldn’t change, Adora slid their arm free and stood to retrieve their sword. Suddenly it seemed so heavy on their back. Catra didn’t roll over to watch them go to the window and undo the latch, instead keeping her back to Adora as she curled in on herself. “Can I come back again?” they asked.

She still didn’t turn over. “Do what you want, Adora. You always do.”

It was a long, lonesome trek back to Brightmoon.


End file.
